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Fondant Recipe - Alison’s experience

9th March 2010

Fondant Recipe - Alison’s experience

My Fondant Recipe is my favorite recipe, as i get most comments on it.
Read what Alison wrote after trying my fondant recipe and I hope you’re encouraged to try it yourself…

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Here’s what she wrote:

Thank you for sharing your fantastic fondant recipe on your site!
My baking skills are so-so, however after reading the fondant recipe, I felt confident that making tasty fondant was completely attainable!

Here’s my story, Alison, 29, Nashville:

Before I tried the fondant recipe on thecookduke, I had purchased the Wilton pre-made fondant to make a couple dozen toppers for cupcakes.
My first endeavor was successful, it gave me a chance to feel the texture and workability of the icing.
As cute as the toppers were, they tasted like cardboard. Even after rolling the icing out on powdered sugar…

After milling around on the internet, I came across thecookduke.com, read the testimonials, and asked a girlfriend if she would like to try it out with me…

We very precisely followed the directions… However, I think our fondant was a little too warm, because it kept “melting” or sticking to her granite countertops.
The vegetable shortening became key when working the icing, and we found that simply wrapping up the fondant and leaving it in the fridge for a few minutes (15-20) offered enough time to cool it down and solidify the texture.

We made two colors, orange and black. The black was very grey, even with a ton of icing dye. In the end, I simply painted dye directly on to specific spots to darken the grey to a black.
Orange worked great, we were able to achieve color in no time at all.

The tiger’s base is a marshmallow, with fondant shaped around it. His tummy, nose, ears, and paws are also marshmallow.
Then the marshmallow was coated with a little vanilla frosting - to give it that ‘fuzzy’ texture.
I did use tooth picks to attach his head to his torso, Paw prints were cut with circular cookie cutters.
I did include a portrait of Percy the Tiger by himself, because I kinda gave him a touch up before presenting him to my daughters school…

This project was pretty lengthly, and it did help to have a more experienced baker in the kitchen with me (it was her first time making fondant, too!).
Making the cakes ahead of time, from scratch, took about 3 hours. Two square white cakes with a simple mix of strawberry preserves heated and mixed with Grand Mariner as a filling.
Vanilla (store bought) frosting on the cakes to crumb coat.
The fondant portion ran roughly 6 hours, from scratch to finished cake.

It was completely worth the work and I cannot wait to make another cake (probably in two weeks!).

Thank you *again* for sharing this amazing fondant recipe. Your blog, advice, testimonials, and feedback gave me all of the ingredients and encouragement I needed for my first fondant cake!! =)

And look how great her cakes are:

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 1/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 2/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 3/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 4/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 5/5

I’m sure you all agree the cake looks GREAT, Alison, if that’s what you get on your first attempt I guess the sky is the limit for you…
 
You’re all welcome to try my fondant recipe, and if you’re not convinced yet, please see other readers experience with my fondant recipe at:
  

Happy Cooking :)

posted in Birthday Cake Ideas, Cakes, How to make fondant | 0 Comments

2nd February 2010

Fondant Recipe - Stephanie Experience

I got another reply for my Fondant Recipe, this time from 24 years old Stephanie from Tennessee.

Stephanie had a bad experience with the store-bought prepackaged fondant and she decided to give my fondant recipe a try.

Here’s what she wrote:

I just wanted to share with you how impressed I was with your fondant recipe!

I tried my hand at cake-making for the first time on my own this past weekend when I threw a bridal shower for a good friend. I had watched/helped my mom do several cakes, but I wanted to try it myself as well as save a little money and attempt to bring something creative to the table, and your recipe was the key!

When I’d helped my mom make cakes, we only attempted using fondant once and we used the store-bought prepackaged kind, which caused us to vow never to use fondant again… it was so hard that my husband couldn’t even get it rolled out flat- not to mention that it tasted TERRIBLE! Well, since then we have seen on TV and other places how great it can make cakes look and so I began investigating online for different recipes and came across yours. It was not only EASY, but it tasted so GOOD! I used it to create a smooth background for the zebra cake, and then tried my hand at making a monogram “B” - which will still need some perfecting or perhaps a cut-out :) I went on to your tips on how to color fondant and got the green and pink results that I was very pleased with. I got so many compliments on how great it looked and tasted.

As far as any complications, there were none, but I did notice while coloring it that it became rather sticky while kneading it after adding the gel coloring– all I had to do for that was just dab it into a little more of the confectioner’s sugar and continue kneading. This did require a little more than the 2 lbs. of sugar that was listed on the ingredient list, but I had plenty of that on-hand anyways, so no worries there.

Another helpful use I found for the fondant: When I stacked my cakes for both the round and square cakes, they sloped downward a little at the edges, so in order to even them out, I just rolled a little ball of the fondant, and placed it between the layers- at the corners for the square cake, and evenly spaced all around for the round. This was a life-saver as I opted not to buy some of the more expensive materials that keep it from doing that on my first try.

I have included pictures of the cakes with this email, and I will be checking in with your site periodically for other recipes!

THANK YOU, and HAPPY BAKING!

Stephanie B

And here are the pictures of the cakes she made:

Fondant Recipe

Fondant Recipe

Fondant Recipe

Fondant Recipe

I think it’s a great success, I bet no one believed it’s her first attempt with fondant recipe!

If you want to try my fondant recipe you can find it in the post called… fondant recipe :)

You’re all welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com I’ll be happy to post it in my blog.

To see more pictures of people using my fondant recipe please visit “Fondant Recipe - Amy Johnson’s experience” , “How to make fondant - Gerbera Daisy Cake” and “Fondant recipe - Jacalyn’s Experience

Happy cooking :)

posted in Baby Shower Cakes, Birthday Cake Ideas, How to make fondant, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

2nd February 2010

Fondant recipe - Jacalyn’s Experience

My fondant recipe post is by far my most popular post, and the one thing I like best about it is that many people are kind enough to send me pictures of the cakes they made using my fondant recipe.

Jacalyn W. had a great success with my fondant recipe, here’s what she wrote:

Dear Duke,

I recieved alot of cake supplies for Christmas because I wanted to start making cakes as a hobby. I worked with the tips, and frosting and I was starting to get the hang of it. But I really wanted to try fondant. So a friend asked me to make her boyfriend a cake for his birthday, and she picked the Brown family crest for the cake. I told her I would do my best.

So I came across your fondant blog, read it, reread it, and started mixing. btw micheals and hobby lobby carry glycerin. I was very proud of my cake, so I decided to send you some pictures. I painted some additional color on for more depth, and it wasn’t dry during the pictures. that why some spots are shiny.

Thanks for sharing!
Jacalyn

And here are the great pictures she sent:

fondant recipe

fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant Recipe

Fondant Recipe

As Jacalyn wrote, the fondant is shinning in some places, but it’ll be ok when the color dries.

I think it’s a great success, I bet no one believed it’s her first attempt with fondant recipe!

If you want to try my fondant recipe you can find it in the post called… fondant recipe :)

You’re all welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com I’ll be happy to post it in my blog.

To see more pictures of people using my fondant recipe please visit “Fondant Recipe - Amy Johnson’s experience” and “How to make fondant - Gerbera Daisy Cake

Happy cooking :)

posted in Baby Shower Cakes, Birthday Cake Ideas, How to make fondant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

2nd January 2010

Fondant Recipe - Amy Johnson’s experience

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Fondant recipe is the most popular recipe on my blog, and although many times I feel that many good recipes goes overlooked, at least I’m happy my fondant recipe is a success.

My fondant recipe post is also the post i get most comments about, and when the reader is as generous as Amy J I also get a respond letter with pictures describing the reader’s fondant recipe experience.

Here’s what Amy wrote:

“Dear Cook Duke,

It was my son’s second birthday this November and I decided I’d try my hand at fondant recipe since I’ve seen it used so much on TV and admired how it looked.
I consider myself to a very apt baker and decorator for just doing it in my spare time so I wanted to try something new this year as well.
His favorite TV show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so that was the theme I chose for the party.
I scoured the internet for what seemed to be the easiest and best fondant recipe since I didn’t really want to buy it from a store.
Yours seemed to need the least amount of effort and from reading other reader reviews, also the best tasting one.
This was my first time using fondant, let alone making it from scratch, and also my first time attempting a 3-D cake (I used a dense chocolate cake for all the base elements and rice krispie cake for everything else).
I made two batches of fondant not knowing how much I’d use and not wanting to run out.
The first batch seemed to turn out ok but when trying to work with it seemed very dry compared to the second batch I made that didn’t crack at all.
For the most part it, I was very pleased with how everything turned out (considering it was my first time) and would definitely try it again.
My only concern was when I was adding color the fondant seemed to get kinda sticky and also, when rolling it out I assumed I was supposed to roll it out on a smooth surface lightly dusted with the confectioners sugar, only that altered the smoothness of my fondant and kind of took away from the original color.
Since I’m not sure what the consistency or texture of fondant should be, is there a better description you could give so I have a better idea (because I thought I had a smooth pliable mass but it cracked when laying it over the cake (this was the ‘grass’ part of the cake)).
And possibly any other tips you might have for rolling it out so that it looks as good as yours does in the pictures??
Thanks! I’ve attached a picture of my cake although I know it could look a bit better.

Thanks again for the great fondant recipe and I’ll keep trying ’til I get it right!

Sincerely,
Amy Johnson
Canada “

As you can read, even when she encountered some difficulties, the fondant recipe experience is still a success.

And here are the pictures she sent, I bet her next cake will look better, but for a first attempt it’s a GREAT success!

Fondant recipe Micky mouse cake

Fondant recipe Micky mouse cake

Fondant recipe MM cake 2

Fondant recipe MM cake 2

Well Amy, I’m happy you enjoyed my fondant recipe and thank you for your mail and pics.

For better understanding on how to color fondant you can view my post named “how to color fondant:) and for all of you who hadn’t try yet - You’re welcome to try my fondant recipe, and more welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com

Happy Cooking :)

posted in Birthday Cake Ideas, Cakes, How to make fondant, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

28th August 2009

Pirate Ship Cake by Caroline J

Pirate Ship Cake – Readers Experience

My Pirate Ship Cake recipe is online for almost 2 years now, and finally I got mail with pictures from someone who actually used it.

Caroline J sent me this lovely 2 Pirate ship cake pictures and I think the cake she made looks GREAT!

Caroline’s Pirate Ship Cake pictures: 

Pirate Ship Cake

Pirate Ship Cake

Pirate ship cake

Pirate ship cake

After mastering the Pirate Ship Cake, I hope her next step is to learn how to make fondant, following my fondant recipe.

As always, it’s a great pleasure getting responds from my readers, and if you send pictures of cakes you made using my recipes it’s best, as other readers can see that the recipes are not impossible.

Caroline – Many thanks for the pirate ship cake pictures, I hope you’ll try more recipes and send more pictures J

Happy Cooking :)

posted in Birthday Cake Ideas, Cakes, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

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